Plato's "Republic"

Essay # 62192

Literature > Greek and Roman
Philosophy > Ancient Greek

Plato's "Republic"

An overview of the main ideas from Plato's "Republic".

2,804 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2005 South Africa

Paper Summary:

This paper is a summary and analysis of one of Plato's greatest works, the "Republic" in which he fuses together his ideas for the ideal society. It looks at how an important part of the dialogue is dedicated to children and how they should be educated. It also discusses how Socrates speaks of four systems of government and his opinions on such topics as justice and war.

From the Paper:

"The long road to becoming a ruler of the State should begin, according to Socrates, with informal intellectual stimulation. Plato says that it is important to make "early learning seem as amusement", so as not to discourage children from it. Gradually, the most promising children are then tested and those who succeed, move onward. The education and training of a philosopher ruler is a combination of the different types of knowledge and experience available to human beings, from the purely speculative and academic to the experiential. In this way, the guardian emerges, after fifty fully realised years of training, "the only person capable and worthy of ruling the ideal State". He, or she is, in Plato's terms, "the perfect, or at least the complete and just ruler", the philosopher-king, just as the State can be the only truly just state."